RE: how to get the physival address

[Hua Ji <hji@netscreen.com>]

>Yes, if I use kmalloc is OK, either __pa or virt_to_phys will return the
>physical address.
>But it does not work  for  defined variable (it was defined in driver so it
>should be in kernel space, isn't it?). I  wonder  which memory space, this
>variable belong to?

My 2 cents:

Given that ONLY 2 alternatives you can use for memory allocation when
working with kernel, which
are kmalloc and vmalloc, you are facing different memory usages:

Before talking further, you may have realized:

>From 0xC0000000 to 0XC0000000 + physical_memory_size is 1:1 mapped to
0x000000~physical memory size-1.

Surely, kernel also manages virtual memory from  0XC0000000 +
physical_memory_size + 8M hole to 4G

Therefore, if you used kmalloc to allocate memory, surely, you will easily
find: virtual address-3G is the physical address. However, for vmalloc, the
case is otherwise. The reason now is clear: That virtual address is very
probably from  0XC0000000 + physical_memory_size + 8M hole to 4G. This is
REALLY dynamic. Kernel's vmalloc, just like libc malloc, will go through the
free_area to find a first-bit(libc malloc is not first fit) block for you.

Anyway, back to your question. Your variable is in a memory space after 3G.
But it is byond the 3G+physical_memory_size + 8M. For example, your machine
have a 256M memory, so your variable virtual address is possible:
3G+256M+8M+SOME_VALUE.

Wish helpful,

Mike


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